The Vans US Open of Surfing just kicked off last weekend in Huntington Beach (PHOTOS), and droves of folks cruised down to check out the surfing, bmx, and skate action in events such as, Joel Tudor Duct Tape Invitational and the Van Doren Invitational. Like Van's Supply & Demand show at the House of Vans, Russ Pope invited down a team of awesome artists -Rich Jacobs, Nate Russell, Mike Giant, Matt French and Zio Ziegler - do a collaborative mural in the skate bowl, which was modeled after the legendary Marseilles France Skate Park. Also artists Gregg Kaplan, HEF, and Marco Zamora were also in attendance, working on painting large shipping containers inspired by the classic Vans shoeboxes.

The Vans US Open of Surfing runs from July 20th thru July 28th, with event such as the Van Doren Invitational (skate contest) and the Joel Tudor Duct Tape Invitational on Saturday, July 27th and Sunday, July 28th. Anyhow, here's some photos I took from Day 1 of the artists working on the skate bowl! PHOTOS

Last year, Eric Caruso a teacher at Harry Wirtz Elementary School (Paramount, CA, near LA) had an idea to invite some artists to paint some murals at the school because there wasn't an arts program for the kids. That brilliant idea resulted in some awesome murals by artists Seitaku Aoyama, Yusuke Hanai, Rich Jacobs, Tim Kerr and Albert Reyes.

This year, Eric invented artists Travis Millard and Yusuke Hanai to work on two new murals, one for the library and one facing the field. I hitched a ride down to snap some of these pics from that day.

Eric also took us around to check out the old murals as well as Albert Reye's mural which they've been adding too. He took some student renditions which were inspired by his art and painted them as part of his mural.

Travis gets to work on his mural outline. The little chair helps.

A pic of Yusuke. . .hard working guy who shows no appearance of being exhausted considering he got off a plane from Japan and went straight to working.

Travis's nod to The Uncluded whose new albums feature his awesome artwork.

I headed down to New Image Art gallery Saturday, January 28th to catch Rich Jacobs'Look Into It – If You Know How, which also featured a mini move group show including Sandy Yang, Tobin Yelland, Aya Muto, Jeff Canham, Billy Sprague, Orion Shepherd, Kelly Nicholson, Jordin Isip, Simone Shubuck, Erika Borboa, Clint Woodside, and Tim Kerr.

Rich, known for his colorful, loose and sketch-like character faces, had tons of new works, ranging from new abstract pattern pieces to larger works painted on wood. Another highlight of the show as well was when Harry Wirtz Elementary School assignment winner Terrence Barr and his mother stopped by to show Rich and folks his drawings, some of which were inspired by Rich's paintings. Here are some photos from that evening.

Look Into It – If You Know How
New works by Rich Jacobs
January 28th thru February 18New Image Art
7920 Santa Monica Blvd
Los Angeles, CA

Vans recently sent me down to NY to meet up and check out the September 10th Supply and Demand show - featuring works and a collaborative installation by Chris Yormick, Rich Jacobs, Russ Pope and Jay Howell - at the House of Vans.

I was super excited to check out New York (my first time) as well as see what these creative dudes were up too! This unique show in a 20,000 square foot warehouse also featured food trucks, Juxtapoz magazines, a DJ, a gallery space, and an upstair bowl to skate. My head finally stopped reeling this week. Here's some photos from the trip.

I recently was lucky enough to head up to Portland, OR (thanks to Vans) to check out the The Vans Off the Wall Gallery Show, which opened at the Breeze Block GalleryFriday July 15, 2011. It was one of several art show Vans has curated featuring some artists that they work with. Artists Jay Howell, Tim Kerr and Russ Pope were in attendance as well. So I headed up to meet up with them, and also got to stop by to check out The Idea Board Show 3 which opened at the Together Gallery with works by Jay Howell, Mark Warren Jacques, Benjamin Edmiston, David Wien, Casey Grey, Timothy Karpinski, and Doodles.

Curated by Rich Jacobs featuring works by some great artists as they interpret sound through installations and other forms. Totally loose and awesome at this Clement based store/ gallery. Andrew Scott reports.

I'm not sure how many people are lucky enough to have The San Francisco Giants 3 World Series trophies put on display at their work for the company's employees to enjoy during their lunch break, but that's what happened the other day at Deluxe. So great.

When works of art become commodities and nothing else, when every endeavor becomes “creative” and everybody “a creative,” then art sinks back to craft and artists back to artisans—a word that, in its adjectival form, at least, is newly popular again. Artisanal pickles, artisanal poems: what’s the difference, after all? So “art” itself may disappear: art as Art, that old high thing. Which—unless, like me, you think we need a vessel for our inner life—is nothing much to mourn.

Hard-working artisan, solitary genius, credentialed professional—the image of the artist has changed radically over the centuries. What if the latest model to emerge means the end of art as we have known it? --continue reading

"[Satire] is important because it brings out the flaws we all have and throws them up on the screen of another person," said Turner. “How they react sort of shows how important that really is.” Later, he added, "Charlie took a hit for everybody." -read on

NYC --- A new graffiti abatement program put forth by the police commissioner has beat cops carrying cans of spray paint to fill in and cover graffiti artists work in an effort to clean up the city --> Many cops are thinking it's a waste of resources, but we're waiting to see someone make a project of it. Maybe instructions for the cops on where to fill-in?

The NYPD is arming its cops with cans of spray paint and giving them art-class-style lessons to tackle the scourge of urban graffiti, The Post has learned.

Shootings are on the rise across the city, but the directive from Police Headquarters is to hunt down street art and cover it with black, red and white spray paint, sources said... READ ON

SAN FRANCISCO --- The Headlands Center for the Arts is preparing for their largest fundraiser of the year set to go down on June 4th at SOMArts here in the city. Art auction, food, drinks, live music, etc and all for helping to support a great institution up in the Marin Headlands. ~details

ABOUT HEADLANDSHeadlands Center for the Arts provides an unparalleled environment for the creative process and the development of new work and ideas. Through a range of programs for artists and the public, we offer opportunities for reflection, dialogue, and exchange that build understanding and appreciation for the role of art in society.

We haven't been featuring many interviews as of late. Let's change that up as we check in with a few local San Francisco artists like Kevin Earl Taylor here whom we studio visited back in 2009 (PHOTOS & VIDEO). It's been awhile, Kevin...

If you like guns and boobs, head on over to the Shooting Gallery; just don't expect the work to be all cheap ploys and hot chicks. With Make Stuff by Peter Gronquist (Portland) in the main space and Morgan Slade's Snake in the Eagle's Shadow in the project space, there is plenty spectacle to be had, but if you look just beyond it, you might actually get something out of the shows.

Fifty24SF opened Street Anatomy, a new solo show by Austrian artist Nychos a week ago last Friday night. He's been steadily filling our city with murals over the last year, with one downtown on Geary St. last summer, and new ones both in the Haight and in Oakland within the last few weeks, but it was really great to see his work up close and in such detail.

Congrats on our buddies at Needles and Pens on being open and rad for 11 years now. Mission Local did this little short video featuring Breezy giving a little heads up on what Needles and Pens is all about.

Matt Wagner recently emailed over some photos from The Hellion Gallery in Tokyo, who recently put together a show with AJ Fosik (Portland) called Beast From a Foreign Land. The gallery gave twelve of Fosik's sculptures to twelve Japanese artists (including Hiro Kurata who is currently showing in our group show Salt the Skies) to paint, burn, or build upon.

Backwoods Gallery in Melbourne played host to a huge group exhibition a couple of weeks back, with "Gold Blood, Magic Weirdos" Curated by Melbourne artist Sean Morris. Gold Blood brought together 25 talented painters, illustrators and comic artists from Australia, the US, Singapore, England, France and Spain - and marked the end of the Magic Weirdos trilogy, following shows in Perth in 2012 and London in 2013.

San Francisco based Fecal Pal Jeremy Fish opened his latest solo show Hunting Trophies at LA's Mark Moore Gallery last week to massive crowds and cabin walls lined with imagery pertaining to modern conquest and obsession.

Well, John Felix Arnold III is at it again. This time, he and Carolyn LeBourgios packed an entire show into the back of a Prius and drove across the country to install it at Superchief Gallery in NYC. I met with him last week as he told me about the trip over delicious burritos at Taqueria Cancun (which is right across the street from FFDG and serves what I think is the best burrito in the city) as the self proclaimed "Only overweight artist in the game" spilled all the details.

Ever Gold opened a new solo show by NYC based Henry Gunderson a couple Saturday nights ago and it was literally packed. So packed I couldn't actually see most of the art - but a big crowd doesn't seem like a problem. I got a good laugh at what I would call the 'cock climbing wall' as it was one of the few pieces I could see over the crowd. I haven't gotten a chance to go back and check it all out again, but I'm definitely going to as the paintings that I could get a peek at were really high quality and intruiguing. You should do the same.

The paintings in the show are each influenced by a musician, ranging from Freddy Mercury, to Madonna, to A Tribe Called Quest and they are so stylistically consistent with each musician's persona that they read as a cohesive body of work with incredible variation. If you told me they were each painted by a different person, I would not hesitate to believe you and it's really great to see a solo show with so much variety. The show is fun, poppy, very well done, and absolutely worth a look and maybe even a listen.

With rising rent in SF and knowing mostly other young artists without capitol, I desired a way to live rent free, have a space to do my craft, and get to see more of the world. Inspired by the many historical artists who have longed similar longings I discovered the beauty of artist residencies. Lilo runs Adhoc Collective in Vienna which not only has a fully equipped artists creative studio, but an indoor halfpipe, and private artist quarters. It was like a modern day castle or skate cathedral. It exists in almost a utopic state, totally free to those that apply and come with a real passion for both art and skateboarding

I just wanted to share with you a piece I recently finished which took me 4 years to complete. Titled "How To Lose Yourself Completely (The September Issue)", it consists of a copy of the September 2007 issue of Vogue magazine (the issue they made the documentary about) with all faces masked with a sharpie, and everything else entirely whited out. 840 pages of fun. -Bryan Schnelle

Jeremy Fish opens Hunting Trophies tonight, Saturday April 5th, at the Los Angeles based Mark Moore Gallery. The show features new work from Fish inside the "hunting lodge" where viewers climb inside the head of the hunter and explore the history of all the animals he's killed.

Beautiful piece entitled "The Albatross and the Shipping Container", Ink on Paper, Mounted to Panel, 47" Diameter, by San Francisco based Martin Machado now on display at FFDG. Stop in Saturday (1-6pm) to view the group show "Salt the Skies" now running through April 19th. 2277 Mission St. at 19th.

For some reason I thought it would be a good idea to quit my job, move out of my house, leave everything and travel again. So on August 21, 2013 I pushed a canoe packed full of gear into the headwaters of the Mississippi River in Lake Itasca, Minnesota, along with four of my best friends. Exactly 100 days later, I arrived at a marina near the Gulf of Mexico in a sailboat.

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